A vacation to remember- Chotti Haldwani

We spent a day in Chotti Haldwani (CH) after visitng JCNP. This is a model village built by Jim Corbett himself. Wow what a beautiful village. Acres and acres of green fields dotted with cute little houses. Canals of fresh river water runs through the village and the ofcourse the icing on the cake were the villagers themselves. Such down to earth, warm, friendly folks! Needless to say as soon as we reached the village the kids were excited to be there. After lunch we spent some time at one of the villager's house and then Shankar & I set off for the hike through the village. By then the village kids were coming out to play and Chellu chose to stay with them. Wow, she had made new Kumoni friends. We came back after a good 2 -3 hours but she enjoyed herself with the kids. I think this is true socialization- no barriers, no groupism..just enjoying somebody's company.

I do regret for not taking her on the hike. She would have loved it. We visited the house of Moti Singh ( Jim Corbett's dear friend and fellow hunter), saw and smelled various fruit & flower trees , walked through green wheat fields, talked to villagers and saw a calf that was born just 2 hours ago . Then with Chellu we saw silkworm harvesting. Just the walk through the village was heavenly. I couldn;t help but feel a pang of jealousy ..They are indeed very lucky. So many thoughts ran through my mind during the hike : Have we really progressed or degraded in our pursuit to so-called better lands and cities? Who lives a better quality of life- us or the villager? What have we gained by being weternised and urbanised, by our degrees and our work experience in multi-nationals? These villagers know which plant heals what, grow their own food, co-exist with the forest and respect the wild. They practice day in and day out zero waste management, recycling, water conservation & recycling, zero plastic use ..all the things that have become the "in-thing" in cities. Things that we cry hoarse but don't have a damn clue about .

I loved the fact that the villagers live a wholesome life that includes plant & animal life. We have become so self- absorbed in the human aspect of things. It can be very humbling to live with animals around- cows, dogs, cats , birds, insects..They remind us of a much bigger aspect of this universe. Humans are not the only inhabitants- we need to co-exist. The villager's house where we were put up has 5 cows and the first thing the woman did in the morning was to get them out and feed them. To get up and think of other beings first thing in the morning! Wow, I saw a lot of spirituality in that.

Its certainly not easy living on the edge of the forest. We came to know about the constant struggle between the wild and the villagers. The animlas come in and destroy the crops leading to huge losses. In turn if the villager retaliates its a huge loss for the wild animals. Finding a balance is the key. There are so many issues to ponder about . I felt these villagers were cut-off from the main stream. Nobody really cared about them. We live in utter negligence of the majority of this country. But I am hoping that our attempt at HSing will make our children aware of this majority..aware of professions that enrich rural economies be it agriculture, native arts, forest management , wildlife management , rural education that is not westernised and so many more. I sincerely hope my children don't end up joining the herd of doctors and IT engineers whose first aim is to catch the next flight to the US.

The concern is not just about what profession they choose but also about the attitudes and outlook they should form. The lifestyle for example- the size of their homes, the carbon imprint,the eco-friendliness ,the amount of materialism. In this respect HSing prevents the "fitting-in" syndrome- I have to do because someone else is doing it. It provides for a lot of self-enquiry and decision making based on one's own instinct. I've seen this with many HSing kids. They are very comfortable not being like others. They enjoy being different and really don't care about what others think.
We have so much to do here . We need to dedicate our children to this country. Our children have to be ORIGINAL AND TOMORROW'S LEADERS who can think outside the box and contribute their skills to the fabric of this country -its villages

And in this sense Jim Corbett contributed a lot. He re-instilled respect for the wild in the villager's mind. He taught them how to co-exist with the wild. CH is a must see. It inspired us greatly. And has rekindled in us the desire to go back to the basics again. Hopefully that will happen some day...
When we visited the Jim Corbett Musuem which was his house we were impressed with his letters that show his strong love for this country. He cared a lot and did a lot. Shankar & I were discussing as to how our history never really delves on such personalities. Even amonsgt the British were those who loved this land very much. And did so much for it.

I personally think this is the way to learn history & geography. I hope to keep rekindling these memories forever in my children's mind . And I do hope to visit numerous villages across the lenght and breadth of this country with my children to learn firsthand its true nature. Cause in the village lies the true Indian culture and our true character. And in this respect I am extremely lucky and proud to have Dadaji's thoughts in my life. Swadhyay as always will show us and our children THE PATH.

A vacation to remember- Jim Corbett National Park

This was the second place we visited after Chandigarh. Chellu was very excited to head to JCNP. In fact it’s for the girls that we specifically chose JCNP. We as a family love nature and my kids revel in it. It’s the best thing ever for them. The freedom of space, the innumerable opportunities to explore, the mess and the physical activities it affords are all perfect reasons. And we have taken our kids to nature related stuff since they were babies. The one trip that I will always remember is of Algonquin National Park in the middle of nowhere, Canada. Chellu was @ 21 mos and I was 6 mos pregnant with Kunju. We had a blast. .We hiked a lot over plains and huge hills. Chellu was like a pro. That’s when it struck as to how much she loves to hike. She refused to take our help even then. She would balance herself beautifully on her tiny hands and legs, would slide down slopes, jump across puddles..It was like she was actually playing in a park.
We wanted to recreate all of that magic again in the JCNP trip and of course nature did it effortlessly.
We reached the Club Mahindra resort by late night. When the girls got up the next morning they were super excited to realize that they had finally reached JCNP. We got a room on the ground floor. They loved the easy access to the outdoors. Of course playing with stones was number one activity. I spied them playing role play games with the stones many times. That day they spent a lot of time rambling around the complex taking in everything new with the environment with great enthusiasm. Swimming in the pool was their first priority after the breakfast.
That afternoon we went for an elephant safari and needless to say they were super excited about it. The safari through the forest reserve made them aware of so many things..Animal sightings and a new found knowledge of flora. We all came to know for the first time the fruit from which sindoor is made. The girls plucked a lot of it and kept rubbing off the sindoor all over their body. Chellu kept shooshooing her sister incase we happened to disturb the tigers . They were amused by the langoors , and shouted “Bambi” when they spotted a fawn. Laadli the elephant we were riding decided to take a toilet break and the girls were surprised at how much poop and pee elephant excretes!! Hahaha..Kunju commented that Laadli is a dirty girl not knowing how to pee in the toilet! She asked “ Dosen’t laadli’s mother make her wear a diaper?” and I was like “Imagine how big that diaper would have to be!!”

The next few days we spent at JCNP was a true joy for the kids. They reveled at everything. The safaris, the swim in the kosi river, the sight-seeing, the stuffed animal museums, the star gazing in the night through our telescope. Chellu asked a lot of Qs and we discussed about camouflage, forest fires, animal life, rivers and their annual cycles, weather , forest management , birds ,wildlife and the dangers they face , pugmarks , water-holes , craters , stars etc.. Prior to going for the early morning jeep safari , Chellu was fast asleep but absolutely didn’t mind being woken up. The sisters loved the feel of wind while riding on the open jeep during the safari. The whole experience was magical in a sense- riding past acres of fields, rivers, valleys, quite hamlets and finally the forest.

Not once during the 3 hr safari that we took twice in different areas of the jungle did the girls complain about being bored. Their eyes searched with equal excitement as ours whenever the guide pointed to a creature. In fact he praised Kunju for her sharp-sightedness. Chellu would often ask for the binoculars. She would point to various trees, the shapes they made and would even detect alphabets in the shapes of the foliage. The sisters wondered if Mowgli lived in the forest and whether Sher Khan would show up? They did express some sadness over not sighting a tiger but since that was never the expectation that we had built around this trip, I guess they were happy with what they saw and experienced.
Once thing I always love about Chellu is her enthusiasm to jump in any new environment and soak it up completely. A part of it also comes from her absolute lack of fear. When Kunju kept asking if the tiger will show up and eat her, Chellu would often console her saying that animals will not hurt unless hurt. “They will not do anything to us Kunju!!” she would reassure. Chellu will never think twice before stepping in a river or about hiking in wilderness. Her curiosity is worth-learning from.. She will get so engrossed in her surroundings that time kinda comes to a standstill for her. That’s why she loves to hike in wilderness. There is so much to see, to inspect, to collect. In this trip, since the kosi river was quite dry we had to climb down and up the very rocky bank. Chellu refused to take any help and enjoyed the climbing.

Chellu's thought process and reflections took on a new tinge. Once while Shankar and I were racing with each other while swimming she suggested that we try holding hands together and swim. We tried it and couldn’t manage to swim but then realized that the back stroke is very much possible while holding hands! We have been swimming together for so many years but have never thought about swimming while holding hands! Chellu commented that this way I can learn to swim as fast as Shankar…:) We had a lot of fun around the pool. Shankar and I would swim while the kids would run from one end to the other. We had many such races. The girls also enjoyed playing throw ball with us in the pool and them outside.
As of Kunju while she soaked up herself completely in certain experiences she resisted a few and tried a few others. While she is not the types to jump into a river at the first sight, she did end up sitting on a boulder and enjoying the river . She did not enjoy the hike but loved running about in the resort grounds. Being the younger child she always lets her sister first jump into anything new and then slowly but steadily launches herself. Even in the pool she first soaked her legs and then after a long time started to play in the water after seeing other kids enjoying the water.
Initially Shankar & I found it difficult to accept her non-risk taking personality. Especially since we love adventure and our first child is very much like us. But this is the lesson to be learned. That our children might be very different from each other and from us. The important thing is to see the gem that lies within each child and tap their personality likewise. Even as HSing parents we do sometimes commit the costly mistake of comparing the siblings. “ Look at your sister..look how she jumped into the pool..!!” This trip kinda made me realize that my daughters are very different and I err big time by expecting my younger one to be like the rest of us. As Hsers we should be wary of creating competition or complexes amongst our own children. For us Hsing is about respecting each child as divine that has been born to realize its individual greatness. Fitting in is simply not expected. But having grown in the system comparing and expecting becomes our nature. This trip did help me see the vast differences between my children ( atleast as of now, it might change over the years) and gently reminded me to be appreciative of it.

The sisters also made new friends in the resort. This was the first time that Chellu has spent a sizeable amount of time playing with her friends alone in the park in the resort.The jhoola hannging from the mango tree was their favorite. But the best part was Kunju making her own friends! She found two other girls exactly her size and height. The three would run holding hands in the cafetaria making thier own games. It was such a joy for me to see Kunju with her own gang since Kunju is always surrounded by much elder children. And she isn't the types to make friends very easily.

This trip has been very relaxing in the truest sense. We had lots of time to do things together, come up with new ideas and experience nature in a slow mode instead of the usual hurrying from one thing to the next. And this slowing down did wonders on the children. They were at their best behavior and very cheerful. I guess they were reflecting our own selves as children often do. This is infact the beauty of nature. It calms you down so beautifully , a trait that we and our children have often lost in our urban lives. This trip kinda rekindled in me our desire as a family to live with nature at some point of our lives. There is no sense in just experiencing something temporarily and coming back especially when you love it. Someday we would love to break away from this mad urban mode and live amongst nature. I know that my children will love it. And a part of me wants to do it desperately for their sake before they grow up and become all serious about life.

These are my children’s days of careless wanderings through the wild, of stopping and smelling a flower, of patiently watching a lady-bug makes its way through the grass, of endless collection of stones, of splashing in the river water for ever , of marveling at a leaf’s shape or just simply running around like crazy on the cool green grass. I want these experiences to become a part of their everyday lives and not something that happens only in a vacation. This trip has certainly touched all of us deep down and reminded us of the divinity & importance of nature. I find it very irritating when people nod their heads sadly on knowing that we didn’t sight a tiger in JCNP. “ Arrey yaar udhar tiger dekhne ke liye tho jhaathen hain naa?” many exclaim! Seriously why are people so dumb? I really feel sorry for these people. They have lost how to be appreciative of nature and how to enjoy it truly. They race their children from one safari to the other , from one sight-seeing spot to the other, do the “Check-list” and come back, jubilant if they spotted the tiger and disgusted if not. It’s like all their money got wasted if they didn’t see the elusive tiger. I seriously pity such an attitude .

This pull towards nature does define our HSing character. In fact that is one of the big reasons to not send our children to school. We don’t see the value in urban, western , bread-oriented education. We want our children to get in touch with nature in a very deep level and choose a profession and life that co-exists with nature. It’s not enough that they just see tigers but think and do something about its survival. It’ s not enough to just splash around in the kosi but wonder about how to save our rivers. There is so much to do in this sense. I never worry about my children not becoming doctors or engineers but worry whether they and their future generations will have enough to eat, whether they will have forests to roam in and whether they will ever step into pristine rivers. It is important for us to provide them with the environment that leads to such questions. Cause what the future really needs is for us to preserve, protect and prosper nature. The JCNP trip made us aware of so many difficulties that the nation faces when it comes to protecting forests and wildlife. The tigers are on peril, the forest is being reduced by increasing habitation, the villagers are at risk from wildlife etc etc..It irritates me greatly that we as urban dwellers conveniently ignore these issues and come back to living on the tip of the melting iceberg like nothing ever changed . And we want our children to continue living on this tip…
“ So did we spot a tiger?” Like I care a BLOODY HOOT!

Diya painting- 24/03/2011

Last night before sleeping Chellu asked for diya painting which I obviously didn't agree to. So the first thing in the morning today ( 24/03/11) that she wanted to do was diya painting! Once kids have their interest fixed on something they are keen on doing it ASAP. Waiting is too hard for them! So after her milk she sat down to do it. Kunju joined her with painting on paper. She claimed to have drawn a "road". The girls were engrossed peacefully in the activity for a long time while I got the morning chores done.
I like the way Chellu uses different colors for different parts of the diya. Color is used symmetrically or otherwise. Like in the first diya she chose to paint one edge with red and left the other edge plain. But in the 2nd one she chose green in the middle of the edge and blue for either sides.

The first time she was introduced to Diya paiting was during last Diwali . I had hosted a " Diwali celebration" day at my home for the Hsing group here. Chellu loved the diya painting part. She sat down with the other moms and kids and got compltely engrossed with it. I actually didn't get the chance to do it myself or to sit with her but she did an amazing job of it. She must have observed others painting and would have got an idea.

I generally never supervise or interfere with her art activities. I like to leave her alone and am always impressed with what her original thought process produces. I believe strongly that this is how art should be . The artist should be left alone to be engaged with his/her art..thats when true art happens!

Her attention to detail and her focus when it comes to such artistic pursuits is impressive. I've noticed this in other events too like in the IVC ( Indus Valley Civilization) co-op class for HSers at Idania's. During one class we were painting the ceramic articrafts that we had made and she sat through it for a straight 2 hours! She didn't get up once..I was done with it and ready to move on but not her. This is the case with Chellu when it comes to anything artistic, especially color related stuff like painting, rangoli, drawing and coloring.
I am hoping that as she grows I can provide her with all the stimulating environment for the artist in her to flourish!

Divine Impressions, A slithering snake and A dog-eating horse- 23/03/2011

After all the rest I had yesterday I felt refreshed and very energetic today. The first thing on my mind was to sit for morning prathna. That was really my only " to-do" w.r.t HSing for today. We have been missing out on prath-prathna a lot in the recent past. Before the vacation the three of us had a bout of sickness and prathna obviously was the first thing to get stopped. So I was really looking forward to it today.

The sisters jumped in immediately. The pre-prathna rituals are their responsibilty.They will replace the wick, pour oil in the lamp, wash the silverware, dust off any remains of the previous days' agarbatti, pull out fresh agarbatti sticks and clean the mandir. We then proceeded to chant the prath-prathna and they did so beautifully. Followed by Sarawati Vandana and a few other shloks on Ganpati, Aditya and the Deep. I try to introduce a new shlok every now and then and generally they learn it easily. Proficiency in Sanskrit is a very high priority for us and shloks keep the girls in touch with the language. I want my girls to know Sanskrit so well that they can read the Gita like reading a story book. Thats how easy it should be for them. It is extremely sad that Indian education looks upon Sanskrit as a dead language and stresses no importance on it. How will our children unlock the treasures of the wonderful Vedic world if they don't know Sanskrit? How will they tap the gem that Gita is if they have to always resort to some twisted English translation? How will they know their roots and thus their ownselves if they can't understand the langauage that their ansectors spoke?
Anywayz...after the shloks we did our auto-suggestion followed by some fun slogans we have created ourselves. The auto-suggestion is an interesting idea I picked up from a Nashik school run by our very own Swadhyay bhais. We try doing the entire thing before starting HSing but sometimes if they have lost interest by now I let it go. But in today's case they showed so much enthu in every single thing. Maybe because its been a real while since we have done this or because they are re-energized from the trip.

As soon as we finished the prathna, Chellu picked a chalk and started drawing on the black board. Kunju followed her and soon they were busying drawing . Chellu drew a man and a lotus and said that the man was Dadaji! :)) Kunju drew a stone, a chappati and a “ monkey” ! Chellu then said she wanted to draw Goddess Saraswati and asked me if she could copy the picture of the Goddess from the photo in the mandir. I agreed to it and then with great attention to detail she spent a good 30 mins to copy the picture! Meanwhile kunju said she wanted to draw Ram bagvaan and proceeded to do so. But soon lost interest and asked me to draw with her. On her requests we drew Foo, an apple and also wrote “apple”.
While drawing Chellu kept asking me several Qs on the picture- what is the veena, what is the Goddess holding in her hands etc…She drew each and every object with great detail..the sari, the crown, the lotus, the mala , the bindi etc…The result was simply too good!!! At the end she chose to write down “SARASWATI” and “ DADA” with some help from me. Next she photographed the pictures in the mandir and other random stuff in the kitchen and the dinning room.

It is such sponteinity that I love about HSing.Something must have clicked in Chellu's brain while doing the prathna and she immediately wanted to sketch the Goddess and Dadaji. A rigid curriculum or schedule would ruin such a burst of creativity. When the child leads the way in learning she is constantly connecting the experiences, constantly experimenting, constantly creating. Everything is but a flow.....

After the serious drawing the girls were now ready to move on. We then followed with a game from “ Helping Children Learn ( HCL)” a really neat, simple book on activities for preschoolers that I picked up from an exhibition for Balwadi & Anganwadi teachers. Before doing any activity I generally ask her if she wants to..The answer could depend on her interest. On most days she will compile but many a days she will request for something else. This time around she promptly said a yes for this one. That was indeed rare since Chellu has always resisted HCL..I think it is the simple, non-appealing form of the book . Or probably that she finds many of the games very easy or boring. Sometimes it has also happened that some of the games I chose turned out to be too hard for her!

Initially when we started with this book I used to get so irritated with her lack of interest in playing the games.. We have had many frustrating moments !! I felt the exercises or games were so simple and nice and she felt so bored with them! Of course over time I have come to accept with peace that my opinions about any learning material dosen’t matter at all. This is a well accepted thing in the HSing circuit that no matter how “ famous” any learning material might be it holds only so much value as the child is ready to give it!! I also owe a lot to my unschooling friends like Hema who have gently reminded me to keep the child’s interest as the top priority. This is the hardest lesson to be learned …It requires us to numb our ego of "I am the parent and I know the best" and to slowly keep reminding ourselves that the child will learn what he /she seeks at that point in time. Many a times I have also felt that if Chellu has had a bad experience with something she will remember that and hold it for the future too..Maybe HCL reminds her of the frustrating moments she has had with me & thus always resists it…So at one point of time when it got really clear that she is not showing any interest in this book I completely dropped it! This is another accepted faith amongst HSers.. “Drop it if it gets frustrating and pick it up again after a few months. If the child is ready then she will respond or let you know otherwise!” I can attest to this from my own experience. Things I have tried and given up will be shown great interest a few months later….
The human intelligence has to be trusted to do its own job. During moments of frustration Shankar always reminds me of the divinity of the child..Just like we trusted that our child will walk, talk, eat, poo , pee, sleep etc..without having to be taught , their intelligence will also grow at its own pace.

So after having picked the HCL we proceeded to play a Language Card game that Chellu chose. It has 36 pictures which need to be first made into cards. On most days we play with the paper form itself. But today the girls showed interest in making the pictures cards . So with the utmost co-operation , that I have never seen before , they pasted the pictures on a cardboard and helped each other with cutting it. Kunju holding the cardboard and Chellu cutting it.

When the cards were ready we played the game and the girls enjoyed it very much. Kunju participated too very well. I guess she is starting to get interested in these kind of things…Previously she would happily do the hopping, running, singing etc..but now I can see her show interest in verbal , thinking games too.. After the first round I asked the girls to be the parent & Q me. Chellu attempted in English and I could sense a great improvement . Her Qs were worded very well ..there were only grammatical mistakes. Her vocabulary has indeed improved immensely.
The third part of the game requires that the child pick any 3 cards and make a story out of it. When one of the cards she got was a snake she said” The snake slithered” as part of the story!! Wow, I was really taken back! Where did “ slithered” come from?? This is where language learning from books comes in. I’ve had so many people tell me that my child will not learn languages until she attends school. I think that’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard! Here was my child using a complex word in a language she rarely gets to speak. Today I could really sens her growing fluency..the stories as well as the delivery was very interesting ! For a dog, horse and a bird card she said “ A dog came in the house, the bird on the tree got scared and the horse came and ate the dog!!” if she were in school the teacher would have corrected her but I can’t really care whether a horse eats a dog or not. She had to tell a story and in her story the horse does eat the dog! I love hearing such stuff! ;)))

Two records broken! : 22/03/2010

We have been trying to ease into the HSing routine since yesterday ( 22/03/2010). After taking a long vacation I'm always wary of jumping into routine HSing right away. A part of ourselves always lingers on in the vacation and I'm sure this is true of children too. It is very hard to shift gears immediately. And it shouldn't be so. When I was a child I used to shudder going back to school the very next day after having arrived from a vacation in Madras at my grandparents' place. I loved my mother's parents dearly and always used to be the one crying out aloud when leaving them to go back home. It was doubly hard for me to shut out all the lovely memories of my grandparents' and immediately jump into being a student with all the attention required. Being a dreamer essentially I remember just staring at the teacher and thinking of my grandparents', their house and the masti I had with my cousins..Now that I am a mother I put in a buffer of a week after a vacation to let the children ease back into home and routine and all the mundane things again....

Yesterday was one such day. I was extremely tired having unpacked and cleaned the whole previous day in addition to caring for Kunju the entire night who got stuck with a bout of vomitting . I think it was something she picked at the Delhi airport while waiting for the return flight. By 11.00am I was ready to doze off and Chellu was in the mood for HSing. I was aghast at the very thought of it. I requested her to let me & kunju rest for sometime and do some quite activity by the bedside to which she agreed. This is very rare, in fact I think the first time! Chellu being a very kinesthetic child will never agree to sit quietly anywhere!! Anywayz too tired to process anything I dozed off and woke up an 1 &1/2 later to realize that Chellu was completely absorbed in coloring the sketch book that she had received during the flight! I was very suprised. Her work was the best I have sense in terms of coloring within lines ( though I never insist on it) and the use of colors !! She had done a lovely job & more importantly without making the slightest noise. I think this is such a feat of my dear daughter that I have to record this.
Ever since Chellu has been a toddler I have always got very frustrated over her non-cooperation during nap times especially when she isn't in the mood to do so. All my friends' kids used to be "silent players" next to their resting moms but that was never the case with Chellu. She used to hop around like a monkey never being able to sit in a place for more than 5 seconds !!! I even have a photo clicked by Shankar where she is doing masti on top of me dozing off..So yesterday's incident is a milestone in itself...Maybe she has grown up or maybe the vacation has calmed her..I don't know!

After waking up the three of us sat with the " Magic Pot". Its a lovely magazine for
pre-schoolers that I get as complimentary with my subscription to TenderLeaves. The bi-monthly magazine is full of interesting stories and tons of puzzles, coloring activities, and others related to beginning readers and beginning math. Its got mazes to figure out, matching exercises and what not. Basically a very interesting and colorful preschool workbook of sorts, infact much more than that! Its been a hit with the girls and Chellu has refined a lot of spelling , tracing & counting skills with this magazine. Since she loves to do stuff with her hands she enjoys the MagicPot very very much.On days like yesterday where Im too tired to do a full-blown HSing routine with all the physical activities I sit down quietly with Chellu and do an entire magazine or how much ever her interest will allow for. Last month when I was down with back to back viral and gastro that kept me sick for a prolonged period of time in the absence of Shankar, it was the MagicPot and another regular preschool workbook that came to the rescue. It let Chellu and me spend quality time with each other while learning at the same time.

Even Kunju did something yesterday that I have never seen before. Though she has always sat with us during MagicPot sessions its always very short and usually some random scribbling. She would quickly move on to something else like cutting or playing or just lying down on me and watching her sister or many a times dozing off. She isn't the drawing/coloring/painting types at all like her sister. Kunju would rather dissolve all the paint in water and then pour the resulting liquid over herself than actually paint. She is very interested in finger and body painting though!! ;)) But yesterday was like wonder of wonders. She explicitly requested for a MagicPot and asked me to give her a page to do. I asked her to color the buttons of an elephant which she proceeded to do beautifully. Since she never likes to be supervised (NEVER) I didn't bother to check with what she was upto. After a few minutes she gently tapped me on my knee and showed her work. I was very suprised.She had neatly colored the buttons and her face was beaming!! And wonder of wonders she asked for more!!!
Any other day Kunju would have randomly scribbled or would have refused to do that particular page. Instead she would instruct and force me to do the particular task. We always joke in our family that she will become a teacher!!!You see Kunju is a very very strong-headed girl ( gone after her father I think!!! ;))) She decides and she does it and if she dosen't want to, no one in the world can make her to. She isn't too keen on instructions unlike her sister. My bhabhi always questions me as to how Im going to HS Kunju who can't take instructions very well..On the other hand I think such a strong-headed person should never go to school and be made to follow the herd. Their leadership skills will completely be watered down and they will never do well at school. Shankar is a classic example. He hates following the system and rules and listening to someone for the heck of it or for that matter doing something just because the rest of the world does. He has to be intellectually convinced. He was a very very average student at school since he would never write his answers or do his projects the way he was asked to. He was the "questioning types" much to the irritation of his teachers! His younger daughter is his replica.

Yesterday was a bumper of sorts for me. I love such days when the children suprise me with something when I least expect it. Maybe what they exhibited yesterday will continue to be a trend or maybe it was just a one day thing but that isn't the issue at all. Yesterday's behavior was so unique that it will be etched in my memory for years to come. It was truly an achievement of sorts for my girls!

Poems by Chellu

Chellu composes poems once a while. She has been doing this ever since we started to HS in NJ. I never gave it much importance thinking that its just an extension of the songs we compose and sing during the day. But this trend seems to stay for long though intermittent in its occurances.
Once last year during story-telling I asked the kids to make their own story and wrote it down verbatim. The whole thing suddenly got an air of importance. And then when I narrated back to them their story verbatim there was squells of laughter!! They were thrilled and amused to a great extent to hear their own stuff and even till date once a while , they will ask me to narrate that story.
So I have decided to start noting down Chellu's poems.. That way she sees how things are spelled and it gives that extra "specialness" in the compositions. I do regret for missing out on all the previous compositions. Chellu's verbal creativity comes out the most during her potty time.

The first poem was composed after reading " The Hungry Caterplliar". When she composed the poem we sat down and wrote it together on a chart paper. She then drew four butterflies representing each one of us with flowers on the side to suck honey from.
The last two poems were composed during a spate of loose-motions..her creativity was obviously on a high!!! :)))


Apart from the creativity happening here I can also see her English evolving.

Caterpillar:
Caterpillar (2), how are you?
I am good (2) who are you
I am a tiny caterpillar and who are you?
I am a big girl and what's your name
My name is Shruthkirti Shankar and what do you eat?
I eat some green leaves , thank-you (2)
Sleep ( 3) in the coccon and sunday
He becomes a beautiful butterfly.


One little water fell on the ground and
Two little water fell on the ground and
Three little water fell on the ground and
Six little water fell on the ground
Eight little water fell on the ground and
Six little water fell on the ground
Seven little water fell on the ground
Nine little water fell on the ground
Ten little water fell on the ground ...this goes on as 11, 12, 13 ..till 20...
One little girl come see in the rain and
Two little girls come see in the rain
....Again this goes till 20.
Summer came all the boys go to home and
Summer morning all the boys played in the park and
Monday morning all the girls come to the park and
All the night the girls go to home and sleep


MOM : ( this poem she said was about what happened on that particular day. Anita the character in the poem is her fictious friend with whom she is on the phone the entire day!!!)

Mom do working and
Childrens come in the kitchen and
Mom allows them and
Mom love them and
Mom kiss them and
Mom mom "how are you" and "I good"
And Children whats your name?
My name is Anita and okay Anita gives them a gift
And Anita goes and the children open the gift
And see inside and find a make-up set
And all the children give the moms the make-up set
And moms give a chocolate bar
And the children eat
And the children see the Cinderlla movie
And the moms close the movie
And the fan goes and the light goes and the movies goes
And the others' movies goes !

She explained to me that the last two lines mean that its night time and everything gets shut down at our house and others' house .

A vacation to remember- A Punjabi wedding in Chandigarh ( 9th - 13th March' 2010)

We just returned from a 10 day long trip to Chandigarh and then to Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand. The former was to attend a Punjbai wedding- the wedding of the brother of a close friend of mine from NJ. The latter was to experience, destress ourselves in the midst of nature. Both the trips went very well and as a mother my parameter of the success of any trip depends on how much my girls enjoyed the same. This one in that sense was simply outstanding. It was the most relaxing and interesting trip for all of us. I could sense it from Chellu's behavior. It was simply par excellence. She seemed to be in her own world..I could hardly even feel her presence. Of course a great part of this is also because her father had returned back from the US just a few days prior to taking the trip. Like all kids she adores her dad. He is her hero ..her mother is the person who is always there but her father is that extra special something. Since a very small age she has enjoyed Shankar's company alone. The first time she went away with him (to Connecticut)for 4 full days was when she only 2.6 yrs ..she never asked for me even once!! It was the same in this trip too..though I was physically present with her this time she didnt seem to acknowledge it..for every need she went to her dad. Of course I was thrilled!!! :)))

The kids enjoyed both the trips..it provided them with amazing diversity of experience. The Chandigarh trip gave them a taste of different people, of a very differently celebrated wedding , of a different type of cuisine, of a completely new city, of a different language,of the close interactions of two families, of enjoying a cute little baby, of all the dressing up and the general parapharnelia around a wedding . When we stepped in Radhika's ( my friend) house the girls were awestruck with the sangeet that was going on. Chellu immediately planted herself next to the dholak and one could see that her hands were itching to play it. After waiting for a long time she finally asked the lady if she could play and took over. She experimented with it- tried playing with her hands and the spoon...

A lot of things happening before and during the actual wedding was so new to the girls that many a times I caught them just standing and staring. The making of the rotis in the tandoor, the horse during the baraat, the dulha on the horse ( and everything about the baraat!!), the energetic dancing during the sangeet night , the beautifully dressed bride , the rituals during the shagun ...everything seemed to captivate them. They never complained even once during the wedding that they were bored even though there were literally no kids around. Except for Radhika's own nephews who were in their own world. Only on the day after the wedding during the games that the newly married couple play that I saw the nephews and my girls playing together! But before that it seemed like these 4 children who were the only ones in the wedding were in their own world. But Chellu and Kunju did enjoy immensely the company of Radhika's 7 month old baby- Chaarvi. Chaarvi is the cutest little thing and the girls couldn't keep away from her. Especially kunju- she would get up in the morning and ask first thing if Chaarvi too had got up?

We were put up at a neighbor's house next to the wedding house between which was a huge lawn. The girls loved running to & fro between the houses. Everytime I needed something the girls would volunteer to go themselves and ask for it from Radhika's house. After 2 days or so of being in Chandigarh we could detect a Punjabi accent in Chellu's hindi! She had apparently struck a conversation with the guy who made the tandoori roti enquiring about the process!

The most often asked question about HSing is on socialization..I frankly feel that HSing is where true socialization happens when children interact with all sorts of people all the time. We have been to so many places and have interacted closely with a lot of very diverse set of people- higher middle class, rich class, lower middle class, poor poeple, people speaking various languages, elders, teenagers, babies etc..and I've never seen my children getting bored. Like the Chandigarh vacation there might not even be any children around but they never complain. They don't whine for the lack of playgrounds or TV or children or toys or anything that is generally a given in a child's life. Like in Chandigarh all they need is some mud,stones, lots of free space to run around, loving elders, enthusiasm in the air and they proceed to have a blast!!!

Most mornings I have caught the girls playing by themselves alternating between mud play, running around, stopping for brief intervals at the wedding house, playing with Chaarvi and fooling around with Shankar. The singing in the Sangeet with the dholak never failed to captivate them and they would immediately plant themselves in the midst of all the ladies. They never bothered me for anything !! It felt so different..they ignored my very presence!!! ;))

I think the wedding gave them an entirely new world to experience and that kept them very very busy mentally and physically. They even took a new liking to parathas for breakfast!During the Shagun chellu figured out the wide array of starters being served and kept going herself to the servers to ask for more. She also became the "go to" person for her sister to pick the starter of choice. I was watching them from a distance and could hear conversations of the sisters discussing about the starters .." this is paneer, that is too spicy , this one has yogurt etc". In my moments of brief absence they managed to serve each other lots of cold drinks too!!!

Chellu developed a new hobby during the wedding- Photography!! It started when Shankar & I were dancing like crazy during the Sangeet ceremony..She danced with us briefly then asked if she could photograph us. I guess she has never seen both her parents dance like this before!!! Shankar gave her the camera and then nothing could stop her. While viewing through the photos later on I realized that apart from a few photos of us the majority of the photos she had taken were of still objects...the chair, the light, someone's design on a dress, the pole of the tent etc...Things that would never capture an adult's imagination!! For adults it would seem like rubbish but I was quite intrigued by what is it about these still objects that caught her attention..this trend continued in the Corbett Park too..I have never asked her why yet. But I'm amazed at the fact that such little things could intrigue a child. As adults we need big, happening stuff to justify our attention and interest but here was my child taking such a keen interest in the most mundane things. A huge wedding was happening around her and she chose to capture the stillness in it..I am always inspired by my children..I learn so much from them..I feel so humbled. They see the extraordinary in the ordinary, the "wow" in the most simple things, they take in the present for what it is never demanding for extra-special stuff ! In the book " Buddhism for Mothers" the author writes that our children are actually our spiritual zen masters housed in small bodies.I couldn't agree more!!! :)))

Overall the Chandigarh trip gave them a taste of a very different culture and they lapped it up with great enthusiasm. This is indeed the beauty of this country. Everytime you cross a border you see and feel something very different. The entire experience was very rich for all of us. I love going to new places. And this time I truly experienced the warmth of Indian culture. Many of us in the US constantly question whether there is any Indian culture left at all in India. We have personally never doubted this but experienced it too.. Indian culture lies in the fact that :

1. The neighbor of the groom’s family agrees to host an unknown guest for 5 days!!
2. From the moment we step in the house of our host it feels like we know them for ages. We talk for hours together exchanging all sorts of information about our respective families. The aunty and uncle at whose house we were put up kept telling that it is God who connects us all. They have been always wishing to know a South Indian family very closely and their wish was finally granted! They made us feel so much at home. We were planning to move out and check in a hotel once the wedding was over but the hosts refused to let us go. They told us that we will stay in their house till we left from Chandigarh. Aunty forced us to eat dinner and breakfast in their house even though arrangements were already made in the wedding house. She kept saying” Ek baar tho hamare gar mein kana hi padega..”. They helped us in every sense taking a keen interest in everything we did. They made phone- calls for us , gave us tips on sight-seeing, participated in making plans for travel to the next destination etc…We didn’t feel like guests but rather like part of their own family.
3. The wedding host and thier neighbor fight over whose hosting the guests. Both of them want to and will not let go of their guests.
4. Radhika’s parents inspite of being dead tired from the wedding invited us to dinner the day before we left. It was very late and aunty seemed very very tired. But they prepared a such south-indian dinner for us and sat with us till 1.00am.

As a HSing family Shankar & I see these events not just as a vacation or a wedding or a trip but as huge learning experiences. I am certain that my children learned a lot ..just the fact that they were exposed to a totally different environment , a totally different culture was such a precious learning experience. My heart regaled at the fact that they my children were being soaked in the goodness of the Indian culture. Its warmth, love, hospitality and colorfullness thats hard to experience anywhere else. And I could see it from their behavior that their brains & senses were fully engaged in every detail of what was going on around them. This is true learning!